Something old, something new

Happy New Year! First post of 2019, and it's nice to be back.

In this post, in response to a lovely comment from a follower on Twitter (more on that later), I thought I'd revisit in more detail, my markers for my The Men who would be Kings Sudan project. I've added to these since I mentioned them briefly in this post, and my first figures of 2019 are the last of the markers - British 'pinned' markers.

As followers of this blog may realise, I've always liked more visual ways of recording information about unit status' on the table, rather than a simple piece of paper or unusual markers. In my previous project - Somewhere in Scotland  - my Donnybrook rules ECW skirmish game, I used markers to show if a unit was shaken or if they were unloaded. I wanted to do the same with my Sudan project, so I set to, to make 'Leaderless' and 'Pinned' markers for both my British and Mahdists, and additionally for the Mahdists, some 'Gone to Ground' markers to represent their ability to....go to ground!

First up were my Mahdist markers. I used my usual Warbases 2mm thick mdf circular bases, of varying diameters. If you're having a go, pick which ones you think fit your figures best. I tend to use diameters of 4 and 5 cm, with my leaderless markers at 4 cm, gone to ground markers at 4cm, and pinned markers at 5 cm. This slightly wider diameter for the pinned markers, is due to the fact that I've added an MDF 'cell' or cut out square frame from Warbases to accommodate a die, to show how many pinned 'points' are on that particular unit.

My Mahdist bases

People have asked me how I do the writing, so to start off with, I found a suitable font I liked, and typed up the labels for each 'brand' of marker. This was then added to a parchment coloured background, using Word on the computer, but equally, one could print out the text on cream coloured paper. Cut out these words, and then stick them down on the base using sellotape or any other clear adhesive tape. I found the best way was to stick the paper with the words onto the tape, using the static properties of the tape, then carefully add these to the base. Trim the excess tape off using a sharp modelling knife blade, leaving a couple of mm of tape as a border around each label. 

After that, you could paint up the figures and glue these on in the usual way, or I'm my case, I glued on the unpainted figure . This was done for my Pinned and Gone to Ground markers, with pinned markers getting casualty figures from Perry Miniature pack SA12 Beja dead and wounded, and gone to Gone to Ground markers using figures from the evocative sculpts from pack SA11 Beja taking cover, spears/swords. I added some stones, or larger pieces of gravel, cat litter (clean!) and other pebbles etc with superglue, to get some larger 'texture', then used my usual mix of sharp sand and smaller pieces of tallus and cat litter.

The tallus and sand mix is stuck down in the usual way, using a PVA and water mix. I use a brush to 'dab' drops of the mix down, and make sure it doesn't obscure the lettering. Make sure that the sellotape/clear adhesive tape is firmly pressed down around the paper, and sealing it totally onto the mdf base. If there is the slightest gap, then the watery glue mix will get under the tape, and soak the paper - disaster! I usually do 'round' the writing first, and move any excess sand and glue from over the writing with the end of a paint brush. As the tape is shiny, it's sometimes difficult to get the glue water mix to adhere to the tape, if there's a wide border round the writing, but this also works in your favour, as you can push away any excess glue and sand with the end of paint brush, if it covers any writing by mistake.

Here you can see how I have added the sand and PVA around the edge of the writing, 

which is sealed under the sellotape.

Once the rest of the base has been 'PVA'd and sanded', as I call it, including carefully round any figures, then let this dry, then shake off any excess, and seal it once more with another diluted mix of PVA and water. Let this dry, and now it's time to paint up the bases.

A few years ago, I took the decision to paint all my wargaming figures' bases and my terrain using the same colours. I use Games Workshop's Steel Legion drab - a colour similar to the old Graveyard earth tone - as a base colour. Then I use Wargames Foundry's No. 10 Sand triad, to dry brush the sand, gradually getting lighter through the A, B, and C tones. Depending on how heavily you dry brush these on, especially the A tone, you can control how the colour of the Steel Legion Drab comes through or not. With desert terrain, it is worth drybrushing a bit heavier, to lighten up the overall tone of the bases. These colours do for desert terrain nicely, but with the addition of green or scorched static grass, and green foliage and tufts, they take on a summery dry-soil feel for European, American and Mediterranean theatres, and for me they work. Even better, is the fact that when I decided on these colours, I asked my local DIY chain store to colour match these paints for me, and I now have tester pots with these four tones in. The store have also saved the 'recipes' for these tones on their system, so I can always head back and ask for top ups. Ideal for building my terrain boards, when I need larger quantities of these paints! This paint is the Valspar acrylic paint range, for household decorating, and works brilliantly. 

Once I've got the bases painted, and the figures painted and varnished, I add on foliage - grass tufts of a suitably desert-like nature in pale browns and scorched greens from Great Escape Games, and small lumps of greeny-brown clump foliage from Javis Scenics. I drybrush the grass tufts with Sand tone B as well, to dull them down even more. 

I've also been a bit 'gory', and added blood to my bases, seeping out from under bodies, or smeared on the floor or clothing where the poor victims have crawled away from danger. I've not gone overboard with this, preferring subtlety rather than outright shock value, but I did add gloss varnish to the blood on the desert floor to show its liquid state. Gruesome, yet effective and thought-provoking. 

Leaving a trail of blood behind him, this wounded Mahdist seeks shelter

The Leaderless markers, I chose to represent abandoned detritus of war - reflecting a unit in chaos and without order. Weapon and shields were taken directly from the Perry Miniatures SA30 Plastic Mahdist Ansar box set, and I used shields, spears (with trimmed off hands hidden under shields), rifles (the same process), and swords in scabbards. 

As for the British markers - it was a similar thing! No Gone to Ground markers though, and my Leaderless markers used ammunition boxes from Redoubt Enterprises, and pieces from the Perry Plastic VLW1 British Infantry 1877-85 set. The Pinned markers - including one poor chap who is literally 'pinned' to the ground with a spear (thanks to Nick from Too Fat Lardies for that joke!) come from the Perry miniatures pack SB20 British dead and wounded. I painted them up in an eclectic mix of colours, including redcoats, to reflect the ad-hoc nature of my 'force' for my game - but more on that in another post. 

I hope you like them! Any questions, drop me a comment, and I'll try and get back to you. On another front, I've also joined Twitter - https://twitter.com/Fallonpellmell where I'll be posting on a daily basis if possible, with news of projects, hobbystreaks, painting, and games. If you're of such a persuasion, follow me on there, and I hope to see you soon!

Best wishes, and see you next month!

Welcome to....and farewell to... 2018!

"He drew a deep breath.'Well, I'm back,' he said"

J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings

Thanks Samwise, for the perfectly apt quote, from one of my favourite books - and yes, I'm back. Rather apt, given that Sam says this at the end of the story, and here we are at the end of another year...

So on to 2019, new beginnings, fresh starts and all that malarkey. It's hard to believe that it's over nearly a year and a half - July 2017 (!) that I last wrote on this blog. The reasons for the absence have been varied - a lack of engagement with the day-to-day aspects of the hobby, more than occasional reluctance to pick up the brushes, burn out after finishing off projects, cat-based figure disasters (in not so many words - box of figures, top of stairs, cat, box of broken figures, bottom of stairs - insert appropriate expletives), which set back projects for some time, illness, and above all, a frustration with the technology involved in the writing of the blog itself. This last aspect can't be overstressed - basically our old family laptop and my previous phone were so slow, which meant that downloading, organising, storing and uploading photos was taking ages, and it led to the writing aspect of the blog becoming quite stressful. In essence - it was a chore, and I didn't enjoy it. It took too long to be worth it. Richard Clarke of Too Fat Lardies fame, nailed it on the head for me when musing on wargaming blogs, when he suggested that blogs should be written when the writer feels like it - as much or as little as one wants. It shouldn't be a chore, and should be enjoyable. In my case, it was certainly more of the former and way too little of the latter.

But new tech, and inspiration from other bloggers, as well as the turn of the new year, and ideas for fresh projects, has meant that I'm ready to kickstart things again. This time around, and in the future, it will definitely be a case of quality over quantity - posts on a more regular basis, but when I want (not less than once a month though), and showing real progress in my painting and modelling.

So have I totally stepped away from the hobby over the last 17 or so months? No, not totally - my Sudan project has been completed to a usable collection of figures, and was all ready to go for a demo game at one of our local wargaming shows. Sadly illness and the cat/figure disaster conspired against me, which meant things had to be put on hold on that front, but I've decided to add to the existing forces for a bigger game next year. I've finished off another desert scenery board. I've also discovered 'What a Tanker!', and had a few very enjoyable games of this, with family and friends.

A hovel...by Hovels, with some scratch built walls by me

Scenery for my Mahdist Sudan wars game

Fuzzy-wuzzies on the loose!

Some of Queen Victoria's finest - metals this time, after the 'Cat' disaster...

Progress on the terrain boards

The start of a A9 for What a Tanker - Skytrex 15mm metal

Game night in Derby - trying out What a Tanker!

I've been inspired by 'Chain of Command' and have plans to get create some forces for this - probably for the North African Campaign, with the 8th Army pitted against the DAK. Over the next few posts I'll discuss these in more detail. It's also time for a new project, and the coming year - 2019 - will be very much the year of the Dark Ages. I've got a lot ideas swirling round my head at the moment.

In all, it's a big hello once more from me, goodbye (hopefully) to the problems of the past, and a big warm welcome to another year, and a fresh start to the hobby. I'll take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy, peaceful and productive 2019, and watch this space - 'I'm back!'...

Feeling a bit Mahdi....

Well, less Mahdi, and a bit...., well, mardy......

For those of you who aren't aware, 'mardy' is a dialect word used (as far as I know - and I use it), in the Midlands of England, and means 'grumpy', or out of sorts, and not in the best of moods. Perfect to sum up my current mood, as far as the hobby is concerned. It's one of those times or feelings which most wargamers get, I guess, when we just have no drive for the pastime, no energy for it, or little interest. very unusual for me, but it is a feeling that creeps up occasionally. I'm not sure why- I still love the hobby, but over the last few weeks (or months), I've been a 'meh' about things.

So what better way, to feel less 'mardy', and more 'Mahdi' - or back on track with my Sudan project, than to kickstart my blog again. It's been a while - January(!) - since I last posted, so that is a good indication of how bad things have got. So, enough of that. Time to shake off the blues, and get cracking again.

With The Other Partizan Show in Newark, UK, just under 5 weeks away, and the RAWGamers putting on a game, it's a great motivation to get back into the swing of things. My Sudan project has been ticking along, with all the pace of a slow moving camel, but at least I've been doing something.

First up, the first of my base boards has been completed, bar the paint on the edges. This is made of MDF - 2' by 4', with battening strips of timber down the edges to form a frame, then a 1" thick polystyrene sheet interior, glued inside this frame using PVA. Coated over with my trusty PVA/Sand and tallus mix, with the odd larger cat-litter stones here and there, it's turned out quite nicely. I then paint it up using the sample pots of paint I use for all my basing now (more on this another post), and it's done. Lots of dry brushing to build up 3 gradually lighter shades on top of a brown basecoat, and voila! Desert!

The board - with some scenery - an old GW hill!

Detail of the baseboard - and the cat litter clumps.

I've added the litter in small clumps, so as to not get in the way of the hills and other scenery too much, and I have a plan to create some 'rough' terrain or scrubland bases any way. This leads me nicely on to...

The hills... Many years ago, I picked up an old Games Workshop plastic hill kit, from a hobby store. It was on offer in a sale, and far below a sensible price, even for a clearance item! Safe to say, I snatched it up, and even when I questioned the low price, the assistant didn't bat an eyelid, so I was able to bag a bargain! Sadly GW don't make these hills any more, as far as I can tell, and unless I see some more on E-bay or in a car boot or bring and buy sale, I'm unlikely to get any more. Painted up with my paint combinations, and desert foliage added.

I've painted the ends, so probably won't join them together unless I need to.



Painted up and together, but not linked.

 

Some of the detail of the foliage - sparse and scorched.

As for figures, well, some of them have appeared on the blog before, but I've done another small group of 8 figures since then. These are once again Perry Miniatures, from their plastic Mahdists box set. They form the second group of 8 figures for my 'Skirmish Kings' project, using The Men who would be Kings rules.

The next unit for my game.

Two 'skirmish Kings' units together, or one full group of figures for the rules

I've also made some markers for the game in August - Gone to ground, Pinned and Leaderless markers. These all show the state that the units are in, and I'm making some for all the units of the table.

I've also put together some movement trays for my British infantry. These are from Warbases, and each tray represents one unit for Skirmish Kings. A bit short of figures to fill these yet, but I'm working on that, and they're all assembled and primed, so watch this space.

Close up of the first base.

Soooo, hopefully this refreshes my mind concerning the hobby, and gets me back on track. The plan over the next five weeks, is to try and update the blog on a more regular basis, and go into more detail about various aspects of the project. That will get us together nicely for late August, and The Other Partizan! See you soon!

Welcome to 2017! More Mahdists, British, and an adobe building...

It's hard to believe it's been so long since the last post, but a belated Happy Christmas and New Year, to all my followers and casual 'droppers-by'! Apologies, too, for the rather slack behaviour, when it comes to posts on this blog. Hopefully, 2017 will be different!

Slightly outnumbered!...

It seems customary on many of the wargaming blogs that I visit, to review the year's progress or to chart out the plans for the new year, and in the past I've joined in with this. At some stage in the future, I might get round to a review of the last 365 days, but not yet; although in summary, with two visits to the Partizan show in Newark, two display games featuring my ECW skirmish project, 38 figures and other bits and bobs made and painted up, and lots of laughs had by the RAWGamers, 2016 was something of a successful year.

2017 already looks exciting, with things slowly gearing up for the Partizan Show towards the end of May, where the RAWGamers are planning to put on a Sudan skirmish game, and it is to this we now turn!

Progress has been a little bit slow, but ongoing - I managed to complete my next lot of 4 figures, for my first Mahdist unit, for my 'The Men who would be Kings' colonial project, so I've now got 8 of these chaps done. Following on from some advice on the Lead Adventure Forum, I tried to darken the skin tones down on these chaps, and I think it's worked. The only problem is that this tone is normally mixed, rather than being 'out of the bottle', so with main coats and highlights simply being a bit more brown added to the base coat each time, it means that I have to paint each figure at one sitting, which does slow things down slightly. Maybe we'll experiment with other tones, but as long as I keep going with this on a consistent path, then figures will still get painted in a steady manner.

The next four Mahdists

As a Christmas treat for myself, I managed to get hold of another box of Perry Mahdists, and also a box of the plastic Sudan era British. I've painted up a couple of these as test figures, and when I complete the first unit of these, I'll post a more detailed blog about paint tones, techniques etc, with these chaps. Until then, hope you enjoy the pics! Frustratingly, It started spitting with rain, just as I got outside to photograph these chaps, hence the dodgy quality of the images, so apologies for that too! Taking pictures inside doesn't quite cut it, but hopefully people will get the idea.

A stout-hearted servant of Her Majesty!

'Give Fire!'

Finally, a few pictures of one of my Christmas presents from 'the other half'. I have a very tolerant and understanding wife, when it comes to this hobby, and she doesn't mind buying me wargaming related stuff - so here's a before and after of the first bit of real estate for this project, a rural adobe building, from Hovels. I've tried to paint it up using the same colours that I use for my bases - after all, the mud would be from the same ground that people would be walking on - rather than the seemingly immaculate whitewashed buildings that one often sees on the wargaming table. I hope you like it! There are more buildings to come.

Before....wooden base, and cat litter (unused!) stones...

...and after...all painted up!

 

Can I finish this first post of 2017, by saying a massive thanks to my followers and those who add comments, or drop by. I hope you enjoy what you see, and that you'll continue to be inspired by the offerings that I dish up. It's even better to see you in person, so please come and find us at Partizan, in just over 100 days, if you can......  just over100 days?! Blimey.....best get painting! See you soon!

One nineteenth of the way there!...

Hi all

Quick post this time - and apologies for the poor quality of the pictures! The next two figures for my Sudan project have rolled off the production line - more Bija tribe warriors. This time there's a fellow with spear and throwing stick, then he's followed by a more well-to-do chap in a triangle pattern hemmed jibbeh.

As usual (so far for this project!), they are Perry plastics, completed yesterday and today. Next time, I'll have a more detailed post about my force compositions for my two 'Field Forces' for TMWWBK, and the next figures for the project. Hopefully the pics will be better as well!

The warrior with the throwing stick was the first one done...

...followed by the chap with the rather dashing jibbeh!

As for the title of the post - well, with these first four done, then that's 1/19th of the way to getting my Mahdist army done!

Just keep painting, just keep painting....

'Til next time!

Andy

All of a Sudan...'the sun's gorn to 'is 'ead!'

Sooooo...... it's been a while! But with the nights drawing in, and more painting time, comes a whiff of a new project. My ECW Donnybrook project has come to a natural break (although I'll post more about it over the coming months), and thoughts turn to (wargaming) pastures new.

Over the last month, I've meandered around with a few ideas and rules sets clunking about in the old grey matter - anything from Dark Ages and Dux Bellorum, to AWI using the new Sharp Practice rules, to a Crecy-era game using Lion Rampant. However, the release of Dan Mersey's The Men who would be Kings (TMWWBK) has proved to be the catalyst I needed, and I'm heading off to sunnier climes and The Sudan!

 

So to start off with, a little light reading - a copy of TMWWBK picked up from the Derby World Wargames show at the start of the month - a bargain from Wargames Foundry at £9! Then a copy of Go Strong into the Desert by Lt. Col. Mike Snook - well worth a read! Finally (for now), Blood on the Nile, the Warlord Games Black Powder supplement for the Mahdist Wars in the Sudan.

In terms of figures, then the Perry Miniatures range for the period 1881-1885 seems to be the best one around at the moment, and will have everything I'll require. A few months ago, I picked up a box of their plastic Mahdist infantry, more out of curiosity than need, and painted a test figure up. Anyway, now that I plan to build up two 'field forces' for TMWWBK, then these will do very nicely. TMWWBK allows figures to be based up in small groups or individually, but I quite like the look of the single figure bases I created for my ECW Donnybrook project, so that's going to be the way forward. The release of the Perry Plastic British infantry for this period will also help out.

The first chap I painted is on the right...

 

...with the second chap in his plainly decorated jibbeh on the left.

So, what's the plan? Well, two forces worth 24 points for TMWWBK - one Mahdist and one British. Along with this, I'll be making some new terrain - I don't have any desert-like terrain boards at all, so I'll be starting from scratch with these, and getting hold of some Middle Eastern real estate (ie. buildings!) No doubt I'll throw in some other bits and bobs, like civilians, and 'fluff' (market stalls, trees and vegetation, vignettes, and so forth), and do a whole load of play testing. I want to try and get this all done by the start of the spring, so I've a proper job on. However, I do like a challenge! Oh, yes, and try and blog about it as well....... now that will  be something to marvel at!

See you soon, as I 'go strong into the desert'!